‘We need to target younger radio audiences’

Adam Bowie, head of strategy & planning at Absolute Radio, says one concerning trend across the whole radio industry is the long-term decline of radio listening among the younger audience...

Since this quarter was such a strong one digitally, it’s perhaps not surprising that two digital-only services Radio 4 Extra and Radio 1Xtra have both delivered their highest ever audiences. With a fraction under 50% of all radio listeners hearing at least some of their radio on a digital platform, we’re at an extraordinary turning point for digital radio. Other digital only services including Absolute 80s and Jazz FM continue to deliver longer term growth.

Otherwise, it’s a little disappointing that overall listening to radio fell this quarter. The fall was felt disproportionately by commercial radio, which lost 6% of its hours while BBC services fell by 2%. That widens the gap between the BBC and commercial radio very slightly. Bauer will perhaps be the most dissatisfied with falls on both the quarter and the year, otherwise most groups were up on the year even if they were down on the quarter.

Absolute Radio, Classic FM and talkSPORT all saw decent quarterly growth in hours, while of the BBC’s national services only Radio 1 saw a significant quarterly fall in hours.

Capital London has done remarkably well, becoming the number one in London in both reach and hours for the first time since 2005, just after the end of the Chris Tarrant era. They’ve successfully repositioned their brand, and have made the brave decision to change breakfast show presenters (or at least 50% of their pairing) when the incumbent was at the top of his game in audience terms.

But they were probably between a rock and a hard place in having to make that choice with a presenter who was becoming more and more out of kilter with the rest of the station. It’l be interesting to see how Dave Berry performs with his first set of figures in May. Johnny Vaughan may well prove to be a hard act to follow.

Heart London’s fall in hours, 25% on the previous quarter, and Smooth’s drop of 40%, both just prove the adage that you should look at long term trends when analysing the numbers. There’s always a degree of variability in RAJAR – and it can be tough when you have to trade on those numbers for a quarter.

One concerning trend across the whole radio industry is the long-term decline of radio listening among the younger audience. From a peak in 2002, listening hours among 15-24s have fallen by nearly 18%. And that needs to be set against an audience that has grown in size by nearly 10%.

Radio remains a very relevant medium for the young, but there are undoubtedly more pressures on their media choices in 2012, and the radio industry needs to face this challenge head on. At Absolute Radio we’re trying to face this challenge by investing in digital technologies, from RadioPlayer to mobile apps, all of which are seeing strong growth. We need to target younger audiences in environments that they are active in.

For more, see onegoldensquare.com and Adam’s blog.